I wanted to get your input on how many calories I should be consuming in order to lose weight each week. I am a 5’4’’ female and weigh 148 lbs. It seems that no matter what I do, I struggle to lose weight; it comes off very slowly. I want to know how many calories I should be consuming on days that I work out and also on days that I don’t end up working out. Every website I go to tells me something different. Please help! -Ashley
The best approach is to clearly identify how much you routinely eat at your present weight then reduce by 500 calories for weight loss.
The best assessment comes from an average of a week’s worth of all recorded meals & beverages using a good food and calorie counter/program. Cutting back from your current intake means more than hitting some arbitrary number from a website. You know more about your habits and body more than an equation or website. Simply put, if you are not losing weight, then you need to eat less calories and increase your activity to burn more calories. – Debbie J., MS, RD
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Burn more calories you consume. MyFitnessPal.com is a great app/website that will help you track your progress. Good Luck!
I am 25 yrs old, my body type is normal having 128 lbs wgt. but when I eat heavy food like Chicken, Cheese or something, suddenly I gain wt by 2 pounds. I want to reduce my wt to 120 pounds so what should I do?
Thanks in advance
This is a phenomenal source of information. I love this site!
All I did was eat less, cut out Diet Soda and do cardio 5x a week (fast walk) for 30 -45 Min at LA Fitness. Pounds are rolling off. Down 25 in 5 months.
You make some great points here on your site. Keeping a record is a must as I see it. We need to know where we are starting so we can see where we actually are at at anytime through the process.
I highly suggest getting a digital food scale that measures in grams. WEIGH EVERYTHING! Go by the serving size in grams, NOT cups or the number of whatever in a serving. Don’t eyeball, you will underestimate how much you’re actually eating. Most people don’t lose weight because they aren’t accurately tracking their food intake and are eating a lot more calories than they think they are. Get a scale, weigh your food, track your calories, and don’t lie to yourself about how much you’re consuming. Also don’t go buy the “calories burned” number on cardio machines. They GROSSLY over-estimate how much you’re burning. If you want a more accurate idea of what you’re burning, invest in a programmable heart rate monitor. They aren’t 100% accurate, but they’re a lot closer than what a treadmill or elliptical, or anything else spits out. And last but not least, pick up some weights. As heavy as you can manage. And start lifting. I spun my wheels for years doing endless hours of cardio and inaccurately tracking my food. I got a food scale, started weighing my food, picked up some heavy weights and ditched most of the cardio, and I lost 25 pounds of fat, put on 10 pounds of muscle, and completely changed the shape of my body. Not to mention the huge boost my metabolism got from the added muscle. And no I don’t look “bulky”. It took me about a year to do it, but it was well worth the effort.
Hi there, what classes have you tried? Cardio is what has always worked best for me. I teach Zumba in Phila, Pa and my students have burned up to 1,000 kilocals per hour. Some of my students have lost from 30 – 120 lbs doing my class 3-5 times a week and eating clean by eating more vegetables, fish and proper liquid intake.